Homestuck is about four 13-year-old internet friends trying to play a computer game that will either save or destroy the world. It is sprawling and complex, dumb and hilarious, and full of the most fiendishly intricate references to the basest turds of pop culture. It’s about the internet — cliques and fandoms, the good stuff and the icky stuff. In Hussie’s own words, Homestuck is “made of pure internet”.

Oh, and it has easily a million daily readers, raised nearly $2 million on Kickstarter, and is actually really good. I have some experience with weirdly popular youth-oriented videogame-referencing epics (i.e. I created the Scott Pilgrim series), so after plowing through Homestuck (twice!) I set out to ask Andrew Hussie some of the burning questions on my mind.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.